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Handicap betting gives you a chance to make online sports wagers and get even money return on games that might be mismatched. The weaker team is given some kind of boost in the points or totals to even out the matchup.
This type of betting has become extremely popular in sports where one team or individual is pitted against another. All the top gambling sites include handicap sports betting as a major part of their wagering menus.
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Read on to find out all the ins and outs of handicap betting, including how to make a handicap bet and how some unique types of wagers that fall into this category work. When you’re finished, you should be ready to start making these wagers at the online gambling site of your choice.
What is Handicap Betting?
To understand a handicap in sports, think about a hypothetical scenario where one basketball team that has won every game all season long is playing a team that hasn’t won a game. If you were to make a straight moneyline bet on that game on one team to win, it wouldn’t be very enticing. The odds on the unbeaten team would be so low that you hardly get back enough money in profit to make it worth your trouble if they won, and betting on the underdog is like throwing money away because they have little chance of winning.
A handicap sports bet solves that problem. By putting a burden on the favorite and giving a boost to the underdog, it evens the two teams for betting purposes. You can bet on either side knowing you’d have a pretty good chance of winning and that you’d get a decent return on your investment.
How Does Handicap Betting Work?
The basic concept of sports handicap betting is that one team gets points added to their tally while the other gets points taken away. We’re using points as a general term here, but it can be any method of scoring that is handicapped, depending on the sport. For example, in soccer, the handicap would be rendered in goals.
No matter what the handicap in sports might be, the favorite, which is the team deemed more likely to win, “gives” points to the underdog. The underdog “gets” points from the favorite. These points are applied to the final score of the game to determine which team is on the winning side of the wager.
As an example, let’s use an NFL game to show how handicap sports betting works. Imagine that you wanted to bet on a game which that has the following “line,” which is the term used to describe the oddsmaker’s handicap odds:
- Atlanta (+3 ½)
- Carolina (-3 ½)
To figure out the bet, you can either tack 3 ½ points on to Atlanta’s score at the end of the game or take 3 ½ points away from Carolina’s final score. Or you could simply look at it this way: Carolina must win by a final margin of four points or more, while Atlanta must either win or lose by a margin of three points or less.
Let’s take a look at some potential final scores of the game and how they would apply to the handicap sports bet:
- Carolina 24, Atlanta 17. Carolina won by 7 points, which is more than 3 ½. That means Carolina bettors win.
- Carolina 21, Atlanta 20. Even though Atlanta lost the game outright, they lost by less than 3 ½ points. Atlanta bettors win.
- Atlanta 28, Carolina 13. Any time that an underdog in a handicap bet wins, they also win the bet. Thus, Atlanta bettors win in this scenario.
By including a half-point in a football handicap betting, the oddsmaker ensures that the bet can’t be a draw, which would mean all bettors get their money back. That’s not to say that you won’t see handicap bets with whole numbers as the point spread. But the half-point lines are used, if at all possible, to help the betting sites make a profit (which won’t happen with a draw or “push.”)
What Sports have Handicap Betting?
As we mentioned above, any sport that pits one team against another, or one individual athlete against another, can have handicap betting. Football handicap betting might be the most well-known of all. Point spreads in games are widely advertised, which is why it can be helpful to have an NFL Handicapping Guide at your disposal.
Important:You’ll also find that many bettors are involved in handicapping baseball games. Because baseball is such a low-scoring sport, the spread, also known as the “run line” in baseball, is usually capped at 1 ½ runs. Handicapping MLB Playoffs is also extremely popular.
Other sports with a handicapping element include, but aren’t limited to, the following:
- Basketball
- Hockey
- Soccer
- Lacrosse
- Rugby
What is Asian Handicap Betting?
Asian Handicap betting works in much the same way as other forms such as point spreads, but it includes a unique twist. Whereas point spreads are rendered in either whole numbers or ½ points, Asian Handicaps, which are mostly used in the sport of soccer, occasionally include quarter-point or three-quarter point spreads. These particular spreads offer a two-way betting experience.
For example, let’s say that you bet $50 on a soccer team at -1.25. That means you’ll get a $25 bet on them at -1 ½ and a $25 bet at -1. Here are potential results:
- The team wins 2-0. You win both bets because they won by both more than 1 goal and more than 1 ½ goals.
- The team wins 3-2. You push the bet at -1 because they won by 1 goal, but you lose the bet at -1 ½.
- The team loses 4-1. You lose both bets.
Because you’re getting two different sets of odds in Asian Handicap betting, you’re getting a chance to hedge on a single bet. The downside to that is that the moneyline odds, which determine your potential profit, will be less profitable with Asian Handicap bets on the quarter and three-quarters. A typical handicap bet will pay more but is riskier.
Conclusion
We hope that you understand the concept of sports handicap betting a little bit better. Once you’ve made a few of these wagers, you’ll find that the handicap bet meaning becomes quite clear. And you’ll start to devise strategies to help you become a more successful bettor using handicaps to your advantage.
FAQ
A betting handicap evens out a matchup between two teams that might not be evenly matched on the field of play. It does this by adding points to the underdog while taking them away from the underdog. Ideally, a handicap will put the teams on even terms so that you can get approximately even money for your wager.
If the handicap line turns out to be the same as the actual margin of the game, that leads to a draw, also known as a push bet. For example, if the spread of a basketball game is four points and the final score ends up 72-68, that’s a push. In most cases, draw or push bets return the amount of the wager to the person who made the bet.
Some betting sites now have promotions that allow their sports bettors to choose the lines for certain games. The oddsmakers will then adjust the payback odds. For example, if the team you want to pick is listed as +3 but you want to bet them at +6, you’d be allowed to do that but your payback would be greatly reduced because the team is getting more points.
